Mercedes suffered a nightmare Sprint Shootout as Max Verstappen landed pole position for the second time across the Austrian Grand Prix weekend
As with the qualifying session for the main race on Friday evening, track limits again proved to be a bone of contention, and Lewis Hamilton fell foul of the thorny situation.
As track evolution ramped up following a damp start, late in the 12 minutes of running Hamilton set the fastest time with a lap of one minute 06.624s, only for it to be deleted for running wide at Turn 10. In the end, it would have been good enough for sixth.
Following up with another push lap, the seven-time F1 champion encountered traffic and was forced to abort, leaving him down in 18th for the Sprint that starts at 4.30pm local time (midnight 30 AEST).
“That was really bad tyre usage,” said Hamilton. “Are we out?”, to which came the reply, “Yes, we are”.
It is only the second time in the last six years Hamilton has failed to escape Q1 – the other being last year’s Saudi Arabian GP.
He said: “The Sprint race doesn’t really matter. Of course, I wish I was still out (on track).
“There’s nothing really to say. We focus on what we can do, we could easily have been much further up, so today I’ll have some fun from the back.”
As Q1 finished, a hydraulic failure on team-mate George Russell’s W14 was reported. Through Q2, Mercedes declared the issue could not be resolved, leading to a steering rack change and the Briton starting from 15th.
For Verstappen, it was another comfortable qualifying session, with the reigning two-time champion setting the best lap at the death in his Red Bull with a time of 1:04.440s, finishing half-a-second clear of the field, led by his team-mate Sergio Perez.
Perez was criticised heavily by team principal Christian Horner following Friday qualifying for being unable to keep his car within the white lines, but made amends as he starts alongside the Dutch driver on the front row.
Lando Norris delivered a superb third for McLaren, similarly Nico Hulkenberg who lines up fourth in his Haas.
Hulkenberg, however, is under investigation for an unsafe release during Q2 as the German driver ran over a tyre that had just been removed from his car as he pulled away from his pit box.
Carlos Sainz starts a remarkable fifth as at one stage it appeared he had no chance of returning to the fray after reporting a brake-by-wire failure with his Ferrari early in Q1.
With time running out, Sainz managed to return to the track just in time to set the fastest lap of the session with a 1:06.187s.
Sainz is followed by team-mate Charles Leclerc, with Aston Martin pair Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll seventh and eighth, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon ninth and the second Haas of Kevin Magnussen completing the top 10.
Following heavy overnight rain that had persisted through to the morning, the session was expected to be run in the wet.
By the start, however, the rain clouds had given way to such an extent that a dry line had started to emerge on the track.
Only the Williams duo of Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant, however, took to the circuit on intermediate tyres, but given the conditions, it was not long before they switched to the softs.
The fact the session was declared wet, though, was crucial as it allowed the teams to run whatever dry rubber they wanted at any stage.
Also exiting Q1 alongside Hamilton was Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu, who suffered an off-track slide into the gravel at one point as he caught a kerb still wet from the rain.
The Chinese driver will start 16th ahead of Oscar Piastri in his McLaren. The Australian was forced to abort one of his flying laps as he encountered Leclerc through Turn 9, with the Monégasque returning to the pits.
Piastri noted over team radio that he “got massively impeded by the Ferrari”, leading to the incident being noted by the stewards, with a hearing to take place post-session.
Below Hamilton will be his former Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas in the other Alfa Romeo, whilst Sargeant starts at the rear.
The second portion of the shootout, run over 10 minutes, was more straightforward, although numerous laps were again deleted.
After his heroics again on Friday evening, Albon just missed out on a place in the top-10 shoot-out again, leaving the Thai-British driver starting 11th.
A furious Pierre Gasly in his Alpine lines up 11th, with the Frenchman turning the air blue with a number of deleted expletives over his exit.
Gasly is followed by AlphaTauri duo Yuki Tsunoda and under-pressure Nyck de Vries in 13th and 14th, with Russell 15th.
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